Reed III’s beat the weather but succumbed to an agonising defeat at Hertford IV on Saturday, despite fine performances from young bowler Joe Graves and experienced batsman Maseeh Naeem.
The hosts batted first and made a solid start through Horton and Timms, but Joe Graves (10-5-20-3) soon found his rhythm as he began to elicit significant movement off of the pitch. It took a glorious delivery from Graves to remove Timms (5), who then followed up soon after by having Patel (4) caught in the covers by Paul Garrott. A 40 run partnership followed but it was Graves who again managed to make things happen for Reed, finding the outside edge of opener Horton (34). Jason Pallett, who had replaced Neil Haslam (10-1-43-0) then removed Marques for 19 as Reed started to get a foothold in the game, as Hertford found themselves 85-4.
However the Hertford middle order soon restored control for the hosts as Kildare and Clarke carefully negotiated the bowling of the returning Julien Fynn (6-2-34-0) and skipper Mikey Robertson to build a solid 70 run partnership. Robertson then turned back to spin, as Pallett and Bowles were charged with breaking the dangerous partnership before the game got away from Reed. Kilare (57) passed his half century, but his innings was halted as Bowles found his outside edge and ‘keeper Naeem held on to a sharp catch behind the stumps. Pallett then had Clarke (34) stumped as the Hertford approached the 200 mark. Pallett (10-0-46-3) and Bowles (7-0-35-2) created a number of further chances, but only came away with one further wicket each as the Hertford batsmen chanced their arm towards the end of the innings. Fynn and Bowles combined to run out D Orchard, meanwhile T Orchard (35) impressed as he took Hertford through to the final over, before Robertson (6-0-26-1) finally had him caught behind in the last over. Hertford finishing their allotted 50 overs on 223 all out.
Reed got off to a reasonable start in reply, as Hughes (9) and Willoughby batted through the rain to take the score to 21 before Hughes was caught off of the bowling of Benham, miscuing a pull shot. Peter Baker (11) started brightly too, before he was caught in stunning fashion by T Orchard in the deep. When Willoughby (24) then played a rash shot having looked well set for his third consecutive half century, Reed found themselves 52-3. Garrott and Robertson then came together, as Robertson looked to counter attack Reed out of trouble. Robertson looked in imperious form as he found the boundary regularly. However with a small recovery underway, Reed then lost their way again as Garrott (7), Robertson (37) and Bowles (0) all fell in quick succession to leave the visitors staring down the barrel at 92-6.
However Maseeh Naeem and Julien Fynn slowly began to build the Reed recovery, before eventually finding their timing and starting to take Reed towards what had looked an unlikely victory. Naeem was especially fluent as he raced past fifty, finding the boundary 10 times, whilst Fynn worked the ball around neatly. The partnership was worth 111 as Reed took their score to 203 and looking good for 30 points. A final twist awaited Reed however, as first Naeem (64) and then Fynn (31) succumbed in consecutive overs. Graves (8) and Pallett (4) briefly looked like taking Reed over the line, but Hertford kept their nerve as Haslam was left stranded on 1, and Reed left 6 runs short of victory with only an over to go.
Report submitted by Matthew L. Bowles.
